


The Names We Have

by TheLuckyLady13



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: AU, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Magical Tattoos, My First Fanfic, Post-Civil War (Marvel), Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-08 13:48:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16430576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLuckyLady13/pseuds/TheLuckyLady13
Summary: When who you love is literally written across your skin its hard to forget that everybody has somebody.Then there was Tony Stark, the man the world loves to hate.





	1. A Breaking Heart

**Author's Note:**

> As much as I'd love to, I don't own any of the avengers or related superheroes. That honor goes to Marvel.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, this is the first fanfiction that I've ever written so be sure to give me feedback in the comments.

Once upon a life time ago, there was a girl who wished so hard for some way to show people how she cared that some otherworldly power decided to grant her wish... to all mankind. Thus, when someone gave a part of their heart away they kept the name of the receiver on their skin. 

If the love was romantic the words were golden. If the love was platonic the words were silver. And finally, if the words were black the receiver of your heart had rejected you but it would be lined with the original color. The marks could change or fade with time, at least for most people. When the one you love died the name was crossed with a thin red line.  
•••  
The world made a mistake in thinking Tony stark did not love. 

People assumed that Tony was a soulless individual. That he was worthy of the title 'merchant of death'. But those closest to him knew better. 

Coating Tony's skin were names. He used makeup to cover them out in public or around the avengers but alone in his lab he let them shine.  
•••  
Before he could talk, and Tony could talk very early in life, he already had his mother and father's names on his small frame. He wondered why his father's name was black and his moms was silver but he learned to hide it away from his father's angry eyes and painful words (and sometimes fists). Even as he grew and his momma forgot that she cared about him he took comfort in the silver outline of the black letters across his ribs. (Jarvis's name was there before either Howard or Maria. He had always been there right beside his heart, a magnificent and unchanging silver.)  
•••  
Going to boarding school brought more names forming spirals on his stomach and upper thighs and feet and a couple on his shoulder blades even. Almost all of them are black. The other kids would start out a playful silver but swiftly turned black after they got whatever they wanted from the young genius. That's why Tony started painting over his marks before he even made it to the double digits. If no one thought he cared about nothing then he wouldn't get played as often. Tony built another mask to go with his already large stockpile (thanks for that Howard). This mask was made of broken trust and dull black names.  
•••  
At MIT Tony had resigned himself for more black on his skin but then Rhodey's name stayed silver. No matter how long he waited for it to change the mark stayed as it was. Tony was elated. And (reasonably) nervous to ask if Rhodey felt the same. Tony decided on a late night up working together to ask.

"Hey, Rhodey?"

"What's up tones? You ok?"

"Yeah I-I, well a couple weeks ago I kind of realized that, well, here" he said pulling back his sleeve to show the glistening silver name on his forearm.

"Glad to know it tones. I can't boast weeks on you but..." at that James pulled his pant leg up and showcased a gorgeous silver "Tony stark" on his calf.

Rhodey is the first person to ever have Tony's name on him.  
•••  
After Jarvis has a red line Tony makes JARVIS. With the first word the AI spoke his name was burned into Tony's skin. 

With each bot or AI that Tony made another name joined his skin. (Ultron was, thankfully, the only one to turn black).  
•••  
Soon after Pepper came ranting and threatening her way into his office Tony could feel her name join the rest and knew without looking that it was glowing gold. It stayed tucked away under his arm hidden from sight.

He never found out if Pepper even had his name, let alone what color it would be.  
•••  
Happy's name is almost intertwined with Peppers so Tony isn't surprised when they get together.  
•••  
When Tony wakes up in Afghanistan it doesn't take long for Ho Yinsen to add itself to the scrawl. Everyone else taunts Tony about the black across his skin. They tell him that he doesn't deserve love and that it's just a matter of time before the rest of the names turn too (as if Tony doesn't already know this).

Yinsen just looks at him with pity as Tony explains that it's fine if Yinsen doesn't feel the same way, that most people don't. 

He is blessed (cursed) to see his name etched across Yinsen's broken flesh as the light in his eyes fades.  
•••  
Obie becomes Stane as his letters turn a black, shining in the light of Tony's heart, pulled right out of his chest.  
•••  
The avengers happen and Tony very quickly grows to love his new rag-tag family. It's wonderful to have people looking out for you, who support you and who care about you.

At least it should be, instead he gets the blame, the hatred, and, of course, the names. The names of the avengers form on his body mixed between people that Tony couldn't stop himself from loving. 

Most start silver (although Steve still has a bit of gold left in it from his childhood crush on the blond), forming within the first few weeks of knowing each of them. 

One by one the light in his skin turns to the seemingly inevitable darkness. But they never faded like they were supposed to because Tony never stopped loving them.

Wanda was silver for only a second before it turned black. Pietro was silver only because he died before it got a chance to turn black.

Clint actually stayed silver for a while, right up until Ultron. It was black after that.

Natasha's had turned to black back when she was doing her review of him while he was dying. For a while it started to look a little lighter and start to turn silver but when back to black during the Ultron fiasco.

Thor was silver until Ultron too, Tony felt the color change as he was hanging in the air by his neck.

Bruce managed to stay silver all through knowing Tony. Then he left. He still stayed silver though.

Sam Wilson went black at an airport in Germany.

Vision was written almost mockingly right beside Jarvis and JARVIS in silver letters. 

Bucky Barnes was silver on his skin even after the civil war but Tony guessed it was just hard to reject someone while in cryo (really, Bucky never blamed him and actually would have liked to become friends).

T'calla was silver even though they hardly saw one another except for accords meetings (or their secret meetings on ways to help the rouges). They could have been great friends if they weren't both so busy.

Scott, the Ant man, he had gotten to know after getting him the whole house arrest deal. Scott was a great person but as soon as his name appeared it turned black. Pym had already ingrained into the man that the Starks were thieves and undesirables so Tony never stood a chance.

Spider-Man had yet to grace his skin but it was a matter of time before the hero got on there as well. Tony didn't think he could take that so he stuck Happy on the kid and otherwise ignored him.

Steve. Steve had been on his skin since he was a boy. When he was little it was a mix of silver and gold, it faded to silver as his childhood crush faded. Steve turned black before he even met Tony, a day not long after Steve had been defrosted Tony felt the change and knew that Captain America was back. When the avengers formed the name would flicker day by day, some days it was darker than nights and other days it was so light that it almost matched the bright silver of Tony's teen years. After Siberia it just stayed black.  
•••  
Tony had long ago resigned himself to loving without return but with every addition of darkness it hurt a little more.

But everyone knew that stark men don't cry.


	2. Seeing The Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is captured and the world gets to see what they have missed.

The day that everyone found out was unexpected. 

Tony had been working almost nonstop since the civil war, trying to settle the accords to be fair to the public and supers alike, doing everything the avengers would normally handle with only Vision (or by himself when Vis went off for his retreats with Wanda), building for SI, secretly keeping the rogues safe, and more. So, when the villain of the week used his slowed reaction times to nab him, he shouldn’t have been surprised. Sadly, Vis was out meeting with Wanda in Europe, so it would take a while for him to get to where Tony was being held.

'Oh well,' Tony thought, 'I can handle being prisoner for a little while. I'm safe in my suit, after all and this guy looks more like he’ll talk me to death than do anything damaging.'

What Tony was not expecting was for the villain to know where to find the emergency release on the suit. Suddenly, Tony was without his suit and being tied to two posts, one on either side of him, and his feet strapped to the ground. After Tony was secured in the most forced T-pose he had ever seen the villain went to where he had a camera set up and turned it on. 

"Hello world, I am Revealer. Today, for your viewing pleasure we are proving for sure what so many already know to be true: Tony Stark loves no one but himself." At this Tony started thrashing against his bonds, he really did not want the world to see the names and he hadn't applied the makeup he usually did yet that day. "Oh, looks like he might have some objections. Doesn't matter we'll be doing this anyway."  
•••   
All over the world people watched their screens suddenly switch to an image of a man ranting about exposing Tony Stark. Some people turned away out of kindness to preserve a shred of the hero's privacy but most watched with rapt attention.  
In Wakanda Sam, who had been watching the TV, called in the other rogues at the palace and even T'Calla to come see. Clint and Scott were both watching from their homes. Peter Parker watched on his phone (like literally everyone else in his school). Wanda watched from the apartment she and Vision had rented to meet at while Vision remotely monitored the video as he flew to Tony's location.  
•••  
From the ceiling in front of Tony dropped down a sheet, coming between him and Revealer, this was soon followed by mechanical arms tipped with scissors that started to cut away his clothes leaving him in only his pants which had been cut into a decidedly unattractive pair of short-shorts. Almost every name he had was in view. 

From the other side of the divider Tony could still make out the psycho explaining what was happening to the audience.

"Behind this curtain I have a machine cutting away Mr. Stark's clothes to a bar minimum, but don't worry, this will be entirely appropriate for any of you more sensitive types. I wouldn't want anyone to miss this, after all. Soon this divider will drop, and we will all see Stark for the man he truly is." Suddenly a buzzer went off. "And that's the signal, let's see what the world thinks of this man with no heart."

With that the curtain dropped and the world saw a sea of black.  
•••  
The world was in shock. No one expected THE Tony Stark to have any names, but he had so many that they were almost overlapped. 

The world had hearts broken. Too many of those names were black and there was too much red.

The world was curious. Who had their name on the great Tony Stark? Did they know?  
•••  
Reveal turned around ready to greet his victory only to see a field of darkness.

"Well, looks like Mr. Stark does have a heart after all. It just looks like no one else cares. Let's see who has rejected this titan then." He stalked closer as Tony fought to get free, desperate to keep his love a secret.  
"How about we find his parents first, that should be easy just find the silver with red right?" Reveal circled around Tony looking confused for a second only to start laughing. "Wow, this is priceless, even your parents rejected you. Who else do we have on here?"

Reveal continued to circle Tony calling out names at random, each time mocking him for the color and asking what he did to make so many people hate him. Soon the madman spotted the place Tony had prayed he would ignore. In the small in his back the avengers were lined up neatly, standing together even on his skin. 

"Now this is pure gold. You have the entire avengers team written on your back." He said bringing the camera around to focus on the list. "Wow, you managed to make a team of superheroes hate you. How long did that take huh, did it take you a week or did you manage it in a day?"  
•••   
Near the start of the video the rogues had all connected through a video conference, each was hoping to get their own jibes about Stark having no names. He was a sarcastic narcissist who only cared about himself and everyone knew it. But, as per tradition, Tony Stark proved them wrong.

After seeing the initial view the broken team had been silent until Clint started talking. 

" Whatcha wanna bet that that's a list of everyone he's ever slept with?"

Suddenly laughter broken the tension of the room even with the disapproval radiating off of both T'calla and Bucky, but it was a short reprieve. Their attention was called back to the screen as the villain changed tactics. 

The room seemed to shrink a little for Steve and Bucky as they found out that their friend had rejected his own son, especially since that both remembered Tony's grief over the video of his parent's death. Tony loved them but apparently not even his parents loved him back.

The room seemed fine as Reveal called out random names and taunted Tony further until the man stopped and started grinning like the lunatic he was.

Everything was fine until: "Now this is pure gold. You have the entire avengers team written on your back."

Suddenly everyone stopped whatever side conversations were going on and turned to the screen. Sure enough each and every one of their names were there.

"That must be fake, Tony was a constant pain to all of us, he doesn't care. He's too self-centered." Steve declared loudly.

"He cares for you all," T'calla reprimanded, "despite you leaving him when he needed your support the most, despite you taking advantage of his genius and generosity time and again, despite you blaming him for every fault he still cares about each of you no matter how much you hate him."

After a moment of quiet Steve turned to Bucky and quietly asked "Why is your name still silver? He tried to kill you and shot your arm off. I'm pretty sure that's a pretty decent reason to hate someone."

Bucky just turned to him confused. "You expect me to hate him for lashing out after he saw a traumatic video of me murdering his parents? Steve, he's human, he's going to have emotions and then you added the fact that you knew and had lied to him for years and you still expected him to sit down and have a reasonable conversation? Punk, that's ridiculous."

Hearing what Bucky said all the rogues turned to Steve when Nat spoke up "wait, when did this happen? What are you talking about?"

Bucky turned slowly to look at Steve. "I thought you said you told them about Siberia."

"Wait," Scott interrupted, "whatever happened can be discussed later, the crazy dude looks like he's gonna say something important."   
•••  
After focusing on the avengers’ names for a while Reveal went to put his camera back in place before starting his rounds around Tony once more calling out random names and asking for his sins.

Eventually the man grew bored and stopped in front of Tony's now bowed head.

"How terrible of a person are you? Look how many people have rejected you. Why do you even get up in the morning knowing that sooner or later everyone you love will hate you? With all the names on you have only thirteen that haven't rejected you. It seems that the only people that don't see you for the freak you are are either dead, it's their job to stay around or you literally made them. Now what does that say about you as a person? Huh? I want to know. I want to hear you say it."

Tony gave a broken laugh that lacked any sense of humor. "What that says about me is that I'm nearly unlovable. It's alright, I've gotten used to it, my mother and father had to have my name tattooed onto them to keep up appearances. What does it say about a person that even their own parents refuse to love them? I've always he too big of a heart so I started to hide it, no matter the name that came to my skin I had experience enough to tell me that they would hate me eventually so why bother telling them? It just gave people something new to hold against me. And I can't even be normal and let the marks fade after turning black because I still care even when I've been left for dead or betrayed or outright laughed at for it. I have only ever known my name to be on three people and two of them are dead. I'm really a horrid person so I don't blame all of them for rejecting me. The only thing I have going for me is money, who would want to love someone like that? No one. It doesn't matter though, I'll keep saving everyone whether people hate me or not so no one has to care about me. I'll be fine, I always am."

Even Reveal seemed heart-broken over Tony's outpouring of emotion. But Tony just seemed crushed, it showed in his defeated stance and downturned eyes. His hope was gone, crushed by the man who saw the love Tony gave and hated him for it. (Something all too familiar for Tony.)

Tony showed his rage through sarcasm, lightly saying "It's alright for people to hate me. Stark men are made of iron, we don't cry, we don't need anybody, we don't feel pain, we are unfeeling robots and super geniuses who don't care about anyone other than ourselves. I am a Stark man so I'm fine. Betrayal, pain, loneliness, it's all just another day for me. It'll be ok, everyone else will end up happy, so it will be okay. Don't you know I'm the merchant of death, a man with no heart. So please won't you continue reminding me how much I hate myself? I'm enjoying it oh so much." He finished defiantly looking Reveal in the eye.

With that Vision swept into the room to rescue Tony.

"My hero." Tony commented when Vision had quickly detained the flabbergasted villain and released Tony from his bonds.

"Sir, the footage of this event has been live streaming world-wide since Reveal turned on his camera." Vision said and Tony cringed at the new information. "I assumed you would wish to know. I'll leave you alone now."

With that the android turned and exited the room, taking Reveal with him and Tony turned to the camera. 

"Sorry for that people of the world, I assume that you would much rather be doing something other than watch me be taunted so I'll let you get back to that in a second but first let me say: I'm sorry to anyone to anyone who's name was shown tonight. I know that I'm a stuck-up fool, but I love easily don't stop caring just because a person hates me or I'm not a part of their life anymore. I'm sorry you had to see your name on my skin when goodness knows you deserve someone so much better. Have a nice night world!"

Then Tony shut down the camera and the screens of the world returned to normal. They left the world full of sadness towards the man they loved to hate.  
•••  
The rogue avengers were speechless. That couldn't be Tony, could it? The Tony they knew was such a narcissist and cared only for himself. He didn't say that he hated himself or recited that he was nothing like it was a lesson learned since childhood. It couldn't be him because that would mean that they had betrayed the most loving man in the whole world and he still cared despite the pain it brought him.

They had screwed up.

"If he loved us so much way did he fight us over the accords?" Wanda tentatively asked the silent room.

"Did any of you read the accords?" Scoffed T'calla.

"It was a document to restrain people with abilities, why should we have to read it to go against it?" Steve countered.

"The accords are a document designed to keep the people safe while allowing heroes to continue their work. While there are a few issues with certain parts those could have been easily fixed but now there have been pushes for even stronger legislation that Tony and I have been had at work fighting against. You know I am a king so you do not see me often, but as busy as I am running a kingdom, Stark is more so. He has been doing the equivalent work of the entire avengers team almost alone, working to sustain his company, working on the accords—for you—, working towards getting you all pardoned, and has been helping in the reconstruction at the sites of recent disasters. It’s likely the reason he got captured today is because of his exhaustion. He fought you on the accords because the other option was that Ross—who Tony sent jail as soon as possible—was going to send soldiers to kill you on sight. Even after the fighting I saw him come to—what I assume to be—support you, Captain, against some unknown threat, only for you to come out without him. And after all of that he still organized the escape from the raft for all of you and found a way for Scott and Clint to be with their families."

After the king's rant the team froze, shocked at all they had missed. 

"Well we need to make it right. T'calla? Can we get a couple copies of the accords in here? Both the original and any modifications. Natasha? You understand this stuff better than most of us, would you please lead us through the legal terms and make sure we understand? Sam, Wanda, both of you can cook and I have a feeling we'll be at this for a while, so we need snacks and drinks. Buck, you're in charge of making sure I don't let my stubbornness stop us from doing what we need to. And I need to make an apology call. So, to say it nicely, Avengers, assemble!"


	3. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world saw Tony for who he is, but some people didn't need the names to see it.

Once Tony got home after his day long stay at hotel de la psycho he was greater with a crushing hug from Rhodey, Happy and Pepper. Laughing he started to wonder what brought this on, it wasn't like they didn't know before this that he hated himself.

"Anthony Stark! How dare you not tell me you had my name! When did you get it? Did I get it first or did you? Now I really want to know." Pepper ranted furthering her point with a poke to the chest with every sentence.

"Chill Pep, I got your name within a week of meeting you. And does this mean that you have MY name?" One could have called his voice insecure if it was anyone else, but this was Tony Stark who was not insecure at all, not whatsoever ever.

"Of course I have your name Tony, I love you, you're one of my closest friends." 

"I just never realized..." 

"Tony is the type that won't get that you actually like him unless you shove it in his face Pep, we both know this, back in MIT I had to show them name for him to get it." Rhodey chuckled, thinking of Tony's sweet shyness.

"You got me too boss, took me a couple months of knowing ya to look past all the fake stuff to see the real you but I got there in the end." Happy said pulling up the side of his shirt showing Tony's name in silver.

Tony gaped and turned to find Pepper lifting up the back of his shirt to show his name on her lower back. Tony grinned and started laughing. 

"You know why I set you guys up? I got Pepper first but once I got you Happy your names were intertwined, and I knew it had to mean something."

"Well I'm glad you did because for the first little bit I was wondering what you had been thinking." Pepper joked laughing at the mock hurt on Happy's face.

Tony quickly pulled them in for a group hug as he said, "I love you guys, but I've really got to relocate the emergency release on the suit, that nutjob knew exactly where to look to find it."

"Alright I'll allow that much but after that you are getting some sleep. Don't even try to argue because I know you could have evaded that guy if you were even at %50 of your usual energy level." She hugged him again, then turned to leave and allow him to go to the lab with a shoulder slap from both Happy and Rhodey.

Halfway to the lab almost collapsed with the sudden amount of pain of names changing color in the small of his back. Tony rushed the rest of the way to the lab tugging off his shirt as he went wondering if something had happened to the team in Wakanda. That was the only change he could think of actually occurring, the adding of a line. Tony skidded to a stop turning to see his back in the mirror, he rubbed his eyes to make sure he was seeing straight. In the place of black each rouge avenger's name showed a slightly dulled silver. What the heck was happening?!?!

He was broken out of his musings by a shrill ringtone Tony knew could only come from one thing in the lab. He hesitantly opened the phone with a confident "Stark speaking".

"Tony" the voice sighed on the other end of the phone. Tony didn't know whether to flinch or relax at Steve's voice so instead he summoned up all the bravado he could muster.

"What can I do for ya Capsicle? Need another training dummy? Sorry, but I'm busy."

Tony could hear the cringe in Steve's voice as he replied. "Actually, I called to apologize."

Tony with insane IQ and abundant charisma could only say "Huh?"

"We saw you today, we saw what happened with that ridiculous Reveal guy. We all watched it together, we did a video conference and everything. We never realized, and even after we still had doubts about you. I'm sorry but it took a verbal smackdown from T’Ca... I mean the person we're staying with to get us to realize we've been idiots and that we rejected your love without knowing and for terrible reasons. I’m sorry that we never realized all that you’ve done for us. And I'm sorry about Siberia, I should have told you what I knew right from the start and I shouldn't have fought you while you were grieving, I screwed up big time and I hope that one day you can forgive me but if you can't that's okay too, I guess, but I would love to have a second chance. We're going over the accords, we're actually going to read them this time and we'll read any alterations you manage to pass too."

'Did captain America just nervously ramble to me?' Tony wondered before composing himself.

"I'd like that Steve, I would definitely like that."


End file.
